Finally! Garden Progress

15 years ago

I mentioned some time ago that I had my bed built, but no dirt yet. Friday, hubby finally got a couple hours to go out to the organic compost place with me, and we brought home a yard and a half of compost. If you read my blog, you'd have heard about his reaction to the compost. All he did was gripe about the earthy "aroma." He made me promise to take the truck to the car wash to get rid of any last trace. I had to run it through twice, and still had some in the bed. Went home and got my hose-end sprayer and cleaned out the rest of it. What a wuss! You can definitely tell his family didn't garden.

Anyway, went today to get some more stuff to finish filling the bed. Since I couldn't find vermiculite at a price I was willing to pay, I bought like 10 bags of what Lowe's sells as Landscape Soil Conditioner. It's basically mostly-composted pine mulch. I started mixing it into the compost after dinner, when it wasn't 87 degrees any more, so I wouldn't die of heatstroke in the process.

Got a good chunk of it done, and I gotta tell ya, it made some wonderful-looking growing medium. I think it's gonna work quite well, but time will tell. Didn't do peat, either, as a County Extension agent told me that peat will dry out in the heat down here; then you have he*l to pay to get it wet again. Made sense, given the climate here.

On another note, the sweet potato I put in water, after debating which end was up, researching it, and discovering I had the poor thing upside down, is growing roots out of the end in the water. No shoots yet, but at least it's doing something. Lots more going on, but way too tired and achy to post more. Details on my blog in a day or so, I hope.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden Blog

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Comments (4)

sinfonian
15 years ago
Congrats! Glad you were so productive. Feels good don't it?
ribbit32004
15 years ago
I'm starting to think that fetching the compost and spreading it is half the fun. I'm fetching mine to fill my expansion this morning while the man is at work. Whereas this isn't my first rodeo, I can drive the truck and trailer with no problems, I do think I'm going to ask them to back me up and turn me around. If I take out the car or house with the trailer that's one thing. Someone else's, well, that's quite a different matter.
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eaglesgarden
15 years ago
sb158,

I understand what you are saying. My wife is not a gardener...her family barely had flowers in their yard growing up. I am a second generation displaced farmer (my grandfather owned a farm in MD, my dad worked on it, but my grandfather sold it then spent the next 40 years buying it back in dribs and drabs.) Anyway, my other grandparents had a huge victory garden and used to can their own produce.

Years later I got to help both grandparents...one with the victory garden and preserving, while working on the tractor (with my other grandfather) plowing in the tons of chicken manure that he would bring in from area chicken farms (headquarters of Purdue chicken is in MD!)

Anyway, the garden is mine. But, when we go out to Lancaster County PA (PA Dutch Country) my wife complains about the aroma in the air, while I just breathe it in and dream of a simpler life on a full-time farm.

I guess that's the difference between a city-kid and a farm-trained city kid!

Congrats on your garden!
sb158
Original Author
15 years ago
Sin, the emotional satisfaction is wonderful, but the poor achy body that hasn't done this in years is disagreeing, vehemently! Still, I'm gonna keep on keeping on, aches and all. Maybe later I'll take a bath in Icy Hot. LOL...

Ribbit, Just picturing a trailer full of compost ending up all over someone's living room after the trailer takes out the wall...Not funny, really, if it happened, but made me smile anyway. I can just picture you calling the gecko and asking "Am I covered for that?"

eaglesgarden...Lancaster, PA. So pretty out there. Hubby reacts same way your wife does, while my reaction is more like yours. Hubby grew up here in S. TX, sleepy little town in what was at that time a mostly agricultural area, so he isn't unfamiliar with the concept. His family just wasn't into it, at all. He's all for the fresh produce, just doesn't understand why I want to grow it!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden Blog